Near-death experience Many stories of those who tell of the phenomenon often don’t reflect what we know through Scripture
9/16/2015
Question: I read a book by an author who had a near-death experience and claims that God told him that one’s belief system was irrelevant. This seems like New Age indifferentism. Can you comment on near-death phenomena and what this author said?— Bob Tisovich, Ely, Minnesota
Answer: Near-death experiences (NDEs) seem to be a rather widely reported phenomenon with certain common features. One has an “out of body” experience with a reported capacity to see oneself as if looking down. There is usually some experience of a light to which the person is drawn, sometimes down a tunnel. There is usually some sense of peace and joy but also a sense that now is not the time, and one is “sent back.”
While it cannot be denied that NDEs are reported with enough frequency that likely they do happen, they are problematic in certain ways. First, they can reasonably be explained naturally as consciousness fades. The Church usually looks for natural explanations and seeks to rule them out before quickly asserting a supernatural cause.
A second, a more significant problem with many (not all) NDEs is that they would seem to violate or skip over certain biblical and Church teachings regarding the last things. One aspect that is missing in most of them is judgment. Scripture says, “it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27). St. Paul also speaks of us passing through fire to have our works tested and purified after death (1 Cor 3:13-15). The teaching on judgment and purification are seemingly absent in many, if not most NDE reports.
Even more problematic are the NDE reports that speak of being able to walk around heaven, see loved ones, etc. But heaven is not attained in bypassing the judgment scene and the purification that most, if not all of us, will need. Scripture says of heaven: “Nothing unclean will enter it” (Rv 21:27). So, such reports seem dubious, if Scripture is a reliable guide — and it obviously is.
Your question refers also to a book by an NDE “survivor” who claims that in his discussions with “God,” God didn’t care what spiritual tradition one had. But this is in contradiction to Scripture, which teaches there is no other name given by which we are to be saved other than Jesus (Acts 4:12). So, New Age gnosticism does not save one, and it would seem that the real God does care.
But here, too, is another societal ill of our times: the rejection of the Word of God in favor of often trendy visionaries. Death awaits us all, and we do well to simply heed the Lord’s warning to be ready by living sober, holy and devout lives.